Nicholas Breakspear background
Events
There will be a pictorial display in the
village library and in other places illustrating the main events of Nicholas Breakspear's
life and travels. Throughout the week itself there will be a banner across the High Street.
There will also be floral displays around all the road signs in Breakspear Road, Popes Road
and Adrian Road.
On Sunday morning, 24th September, in both St Saviour's and St Lawrence Churches, the week
will be announced at the main morning services, i.e. the 9.30am Parish Eucharist in St
Lawrence Church and the 11.00am Sung Mass in St Saviour's. A short introduction to the
life of Nicholas Breakspear will be read. The two churches will co-operate closely in
remembering Nicholas, recognising that his life was set in times long before the
Reformation divided Protestant from Roman Catholic.
On Sunday afternoon, 24th September, there will be a historical walk on the Nicholas Breakspear
theme, beginning in St Lawrence Church at 2.30pm and visiting the plaque by the roadside
in Bedmond, near the site of Breakspear Farm where Nicholas was born, the road sign floral
displays in the village and the bust of Nicholas Breakspear in St Saviour's.
On Thursday evening September 28th the Abbots Langley Local History Society presents a lecture by Revd Canon Anders Bergquist: From Bedmond to Trondheim to Rome: the career of
Nicholas Breakspear. This takes place in St Lawrence Church at 8.00pm.
Each day in St Saviour's Church, after the 10.00am morning Mass, further instalments of
the Life of Nicholas Breakspear will be read. The bust of Nicholas as Pope Adrian IV,
normally in the vestibule, will be placed in a more prominent position and suitably
decorated.
The climax of the church celebrations will come on Sunday 1st October as follows:
11.00am in St Saviours: Solemn Mass in memory of the life and papacy of Nicholas Breakspear,
Pope Adrian IV. Bishop James O'Brien, Roman Catholic Bishop in Hertfordshire, hopes to be
present.
Later that day there will be two of the daily monastic services with which Nicholas would
have been familiar as monk and Abbot:
At 4.00pm in St. Saviour's there will be Vespers of Sunday in the style of the monastic offices sung by monks during the medieval period.
At 8.00pm Compline will be sung in St
Lawrence Church, bringing the week to a close at the site where Robert Breakspear and his
wife first brought their new son to church and named him Nicholas.
ASJ